Portable fireplace screen

ABSTRACT

A portable fireplace screen arranged on a variable length pipe assembly which is mounted on a pair of angle irons which is variable in height. The angle irons are arranged at opposite ends of the pipe assembly and a ratchet and crank assembly is arranged at the top of one of the angle irons to enable the fireplace screen to be raised or lowered.

United States Patent [191 Gibbs Aug. 20, 1974 PORTABLE FIREPLACE SCREEN[76] Inventor: Fred E. Gibbs, Rock River, Wyo.

[22] Filed: Oct. 2, 1972 21] Appl. No; 294,070

[52] US. Cl 126/202, l60/DIG. 9, 248/354 CS,

287/58 CT [51] Int. Cl. F24c 15/36 [58] Field of Search 126/138, 140,202; 160/250, 263, D16. 9; 248/354 S; 287/58 CT, 62

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,252,286 l/l9 l8 Masson160/263 X 1,659,526 2/1928 Harader 126/202 X 1,726,854 9/1929 Mumford126/140 UX 1,893,651 1/1933 Ray..' 160/263 X 2,836,236 5/1958 Weir248/354 S 3,224,429 12/1965 Quittner 126/202 Primary Examiner-William F.ODea Assistant ExaminerPeter D. Ferguson Attorney, Agent, orFirmMisegades, Douglas 8; Levy [5 7] ABSTRACT A portable fireplacescreen arranged on a variable length pipe assembly which is mounted on apair of angle irons which is variable in height. The angle irons arearranged at opposite ends of the pipe assembly and a ratchet and crankassembly is arranged at the top of one of the angle irons to enable thefireplace screen to be raised or lowered.

9 Claims, 17 Drawing Figures PORTABLE FIREPLACE SCREEN BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION I 1. Field of Invention The present invention relates to aportable fireplace screen and more particularly to a fireplace screenhaving means to vary the height of the assembly as well as a ratchet andcrank assembly to vary the height of the SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Thegeneral purpose of the present invention is to provide 'a portablefireplace screen which possesses none of the aforedescribeddisadvantages of the prior art. To attain this, the present inventionprovides a fireplace screen mounted on two pipes. The diameters of thepipes are such that one is arranged to have an end inserted in the otherand slidable to expand the total length of the pipe assembly. A setscrew arrangement on the pipes retains the length of the pipesstationary once the combination of the two pipes has been adjusted tothe desired length. The pipes may thereby be arranged horizontally alongthe total length of the top of the fireplace.

The pipes are mounted on two angle iron assemblies that are eachadjustable in height and secured by bolt means. A ratchet and crankassembly is arranged at the top of one of the angle iron assemblies. Itis connected to the end of one of the pipes which is mounted on thatangle iron to thereby enable the fireplace screen to be raised orlowered. The opposite end of the other pipe appears to be mounted on thesecond angle iron assembly which requires no ratchet or crank assembly.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide means toadjust the height of a portable fireplace screen.

Another object of the present invention is to provide means to adjustthe overall height of a portable fireplace assembly.

A further object of the present invention is to provide crank andratchet means for raising and lowering the height of a fireplace screenand locking the screen into position at a predetermined height.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide adjustablebolt means for securing angle irons on which a fireplace screen ismounted to adjust the overall height of a portable fireplace assembly.

Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present inventionwill become apparent from the following detailed description of theinvention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawmgs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front view of a fireplacewith fireplace screen installed; and

FIG. 2 is a top view of an embodiment of the fireplace screen which isthe subject of the present invention; and

FIG. 2A is a top view of the spindle and angle iron arrangement on whichthe right end of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is mounted; and

FIG. 2B is an end view of the spindle shown in FIG. 2A; and

FIG. 2C is a view of the pipe and gear arrangement at the left end ofFIG. 2; and

FIG. 2D is a cross sectional view of the pipe shown in FIG. 2C; and

FIG. 25 is a side view of the gear arrangement shown in FIG. 2C; and

FIG. 2F is a top view of the spindle and angle iron arrangement on whichthe left end of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is mounted; and

FIG. 2G is a side view of the spindle shown in FIG. 2F; and

FIG. 2H is a front view of the spindle shown in FIG. 2F; and

FIG. 3 is a view of the ratchet arrangement of the present invention;and

FIG. 3A is a view of the crank handle which turns the ratchet wheel; and

FIG. 3B is an end view of the ratchet wheel; and

FIG. 3C is an end view of the gear mounted on the ratchet wheel shaft;and

FIG. 4 is a view of the left angle iron assembly of the embodiment shownin FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4A is a front view of the angle iron assembly shown in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 4B is a top view of the angle iron assembly shown in FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIG. 1, thereis shown a pipe assembly 10 and 11 with the pipe 10 having a diameterslightly less than that of pipe 11 and arranged to fit in pipe 11 asshown in greater detail in FIG. 2. The pipe assembly is supported byangle iron 12 on the right which is fastened to angle iron 13 byexpansion connection 16. It is also supported by angle iron 14 on theleft which is fastened to angle iron 15 by expansion connection 17. Acrank handle 18 may be rotated manually to rotate a screen mounted onthe pipe assembly 10 and 11 to raise or lower the screen.

The screen 20 is shown in FIG. 2 fastened to the pipes'lO and 11 bymetal screws 21. The length of the pipe assembly may be adjusted byunfastening set screws 22. After the pipe assembly has been adjusted tothe desired length, the set screws need only to be tightened to retainthe pipe assembly at the desired length. Pipe 10 is mounted on a spindle23 as shown in FIG. 2A. An end view of the spindle is shown in FIG. 2B.Pipe 11, a cross-sectional view of which is shown in FIG. 2D, isfastened to a gear 24 as shown in FIG. 2C. An end view of gear 24 isshown in FIG. 2B. The pipe 11 with gear 24 is mounted on spindle 26 asshown in FIGS. 2 and 2F. An end view of spindle 26 is shown in FIG. 2Gand a front view is shown in FIG. 2H. The spindle 26 has a hole 28through which shaft 29 is inserted.

Gear 30 is mounted on shaft 29 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Gear 30 mesheswith gear 24 as shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 3C shows an end view of gear 30. Aratchet 32 is mounted on shaft 29 as shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 3B is an endview of ratchet 32. The ratchet maybe latched by ratchet latch 40 shownin FIGS. 4 and 4A. The crank handle 18 is mounted on the shaft 29 tomanually rotate the shaft 29 and gear 30. The rotation of gear 30 inturn rotates gear 24 which rotates pipe 11. Pipe 10 rotatessimultaneously by virtue of the fastening of pipe to pipe 11 by setscrews 22. Since screen 20 is fastened to pipes 10 and 11 by screws 21,as shown in FIG. 2, it is seen that the screen may be raised or loweredsimply by rotating crank handle 18. The height of the screen may befixed by simply engaging ratchet latch 40 with ratchet 32 to therebymaintain shaft 29, gear 30, gear 24, pipe 11, and pipe 10 in fixedpositions.

FIG. 4 shows angle irons 14 and which are coupled by guides 42. A nut 43and screw 44 enable the height of the combination of angle irons 14 and15 to be adjusted. As shown in FIG. 4A, the nut 43 is welded to angleiron 14. As shown in FIG. 4, screw 44 is threaded through nut 43 but nottriangular sheet 46 which is welded to the top of angle iron 15. A topview of the nut 43, screw 44, and triangular sheet 46 arrangement isshown in FIG. 4B. The height of the fireplace assembly may be adjustedby simply turning screw 44 to adjust the relative positions of angleirons 14 and 15. It will be apparent that the height of the right angleiron assembly comprising angle irons 12 and 13 may be adjusted in asimilar manner.

Thus, it is seen that the height of the portable fireplace may beadjusted by adjusting the angle irons 12 and 13 on the right and 14 and15 on the left as shown in FIG. 1. The adjustment may be obtained by anut a screw arrangement such as nut 43 and screw 44 which is threadedthrough a hole in triangular plate 46 as shown in FIG. 4.

The height of the fireplace screen may be manually adjusted by turningcrank 18, shown in FIG. 3A, and latching ratchet 32, shown in FIGS. 3and 3B, with ratchet 40, shown in FIGS. 4 and 4A. The width of theassembly may be adjusted by moving pipe 10 longitudinally within pipe11. The position of pipe 10, with respect to pipe 11, may be fixed byset screws 22 shown in FIG. 2.

It is seen that by using different length angle irons l5 and differentlength pipes 10, the fireplace screen of the present invention may beadapted to any size fireplace opening that is square or rectangular.

After installation in the fireplace opening, there will be a decorativeflashing placed in front of angle irons 14,15 and pipe 10,11, whichserves to make the outward appearance more attractive and spark-proof.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention arepossible in the light of the above teachings. It is therefore to beunderstood that within the scope of the appended claims, the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

1. A portable fireplace screen comprising:

horizontal rotatable supporting means for supporting a fireplace screen;

vertical supporting means for supporting said horizontal rotatablesupporting means at either end and adjustable in height;

means for manually rotating said horizontal rotatable supporting meansto thereby raise or lower said fireplace screen;

said vertical supporting means comprising two sets of angle irons eacharranged at one end of said horizontal rotatable supporting means witheach set containing a nut having its edge secured to one of the angleirons in a set and being threadedly engageable to a screw means incontact with at least one other of said angle irons in each set to fixthe position of at least one of the angle irons in each of said sets inrelation to that of another angle iron in the associated set.

2. The device as described in claim 1 wherein each of said sets of angleirons contains guide means to guide the movement of at least one of theangle irons in each of said sets in relation to that of another angleiron in the associated set.

3. The device as described in claim 2 wherein said horizontal rotatablesupporting means comprises a pipe assembly containing at least two pipesarranged concentrically with one of said two pipes having a diameterslightly less than that of the other of said two pipes and slidablewithin the other. 4. The device as described in claim 4 furthercontaining set screw means for fixing the position of one of said twopipes in relation to that of the other of said two pipes.

5. The device as described in claim 1 wherein said means for manuallyrotating said horizontal rotatable supporting means contains a ratchetand latch assembly.

6. The device as described in claim 6 wherein said means for manuallyrotating said horizontal rotatable supporting means further contains acrank.

7. The device as described in claim 6 wherein said crank is coupled tosaid horizontal rotatable supporting means by a gear assembly.

8. The device as described in claim 7 wherein said horizontal rotatablesupporting means comprises a pipe assembly containing at least two pipesarranged concentrically with one of said two pipes having a diameterslightly less than that of the other of said two pipes slidable withinthe other.

9. The device as described in claim 8 further containing set screw meansfor fixing the position of one of said pipes in relation to that of theother of said two pipes. 1:

1. A portable fireplace screen comprising: horizontal rotatablesupporting means for supporting a fireplace screen; vertical supportingmeans for supporting said horizontal rotatable supporting means ateither end and adjustable in height; means for manually rotating saidhorizontal rotatable supporting means to thereby raise or lower saidfireplace screen; said vertical supporting means comprising two sets ofangle irons each arranged at one end of said horizontal rotatablesupporting means with each set containing a nut having its edge securedto one of the angle irons in a set and being threadedly engageable to ascrew means in contact with at least one other of said angle irons ineach set to fix the position of at least one of the angle irons in eachof said sets in relation to that of another angle iron in the associatedset.
 2. The device as described in claim 1 wherein each of said sets ofangle irons contains guide means to guide the movement of at least oneof the angle irons in each of said sets in relation to that of anotherangle iron in the associated set.
 3. The device as described in claim 2wherein said horizontal rotatable supporting means comprises a pipeassembly containing at least two pipes arranged concentrically with oneof said two pipes having a diameter slightly less than that of the otherof said two pipes and slidable within the other.
 4. The device asdescribed in claim 4 further containing set screw means for fixing theposition of one of said two pipes in relation to that of the other ofsaid two pipes.
 5. The device as described in claim 1 wherein said meansfor manually rotating said horizontal rotatable supporting meanscontains a ratchet and latch assembly.
 6. The device as described inclaim 6 wherein said means for manually rotating said horizontalrotatable supporting means further contains a crank.
 7. The device asdescribed in claim 6 wherein said crank is coupled to said horizontalrotatable supporting means by a gear assembly.
 8. The device asdescribed in claim 7 wherein said horizontal rotatable supporting meanscomprises a pipe assembly containing at least two pipes arrangedconcentrically with one of said two pipes having a diameter slightlyless than that of the other of said two pipes slidable within the other.9. The device as described in claim 8 further containing set screw meansfor fixing the position of one of said pipes in relation to that of theother of said two pipes.